A REVIEW OF 

Educational Progress in Ohio 



For the Current Year 



BY- 



WILLIAM McK. VANCE 

Superintendent of Schools^ Delaware, Ohio 



Pttbluhed by State Superintendent of Public Instruction 



A REVIEW OF 



Educational Progress in Ohio 



For the Current Year 



BY 



WILLIAM McKf VANCE 
Superintendent of Schools, Delaware, Ohio 



■FOR THE- 



Closing Meeting of the 
CENTRAL OHIO SCHOOLMASTERS' CLUB 

COLUMBUS, OHIO 
May 9, 1913 



Published by State Superintendent of Public Instruction 



Columbus, Ohio: 

The F. J. Heer Printing Co. 

1913 






'J? 



HAY 14 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IN OHIO FOR THE 
CURRENT YEAR 

After my appointment to this task — I wish I could in truth substi- 
tute for the word "task" the euphemism, "an agreeable duty,"^ — I tried 
to fancy myself, as it were, a pedagogical St. John standing on the Isle 
of Patmos, looking off into the ethereal blue of educational idealism, 
and seeing the old order of things passing away, and a new educational 
heaven and a new educational earth being created. In this attempt I 
failed signally. Either I lacked imagination, or there was nothing quite 
so cataclysmic doing in the educational- universe. 

It is said that a skillful reconteur never spoils a good story for lack 
of material. But here again I was quite as much embarrassed as 
Launcelot Gobbo by my conscience — or, what amounts to the same thing, 
by the fact that every other mother's son of this club knows quite as 
much about Educational Progress in Ohio as I do, and in a few cases, 
three, to be exact, a little more than I do, for Doctor Thompson, Dean 
Boyd, and Doctor Jones have traversed this way before me. Then, too, 
Dr. Shawan, only last July, made for the Council of the National Edu- 
cational Association, a survey of progress covering the entire country, 
cuius pars magna Ohio fuit, and but for the recollection that he has 
a memory exceedingly tenacious of his own literary wares, I could have 
cribbed entire paragraphs that apply quite as well to Ohio today as to 
the republic last year. 

And so, being short on imagination and long on conscience, there 
was no escape for me except to use the well-worn device of a question- 
naire. I sent out two kinds, — oh, my offense is rank! — one to the col- 
lege folk, and one to the superintendents of the one hundred largest 
cities and towns of the state, and to a few others ; also personal letters 
to the commissioner, high school inspectors, deans of normal schools, 
and agricultural supervisors. I obtained a most interesting lot of facts 
and some valuable comment. But this mass of material, I realize, my 
friends, has been poorly digested, simply because of lack of time I tried 
to hasten the process, with the result that tonight we have on hands a 
rather desperate case of intellectual dyspepsia. 

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. 

Of the twenty-eight institutions of higher education replying to 
my questionnaire, it is difficult to summarize the increases for the year 
in endowment, in enrollment, buildings, grounds, departments, and 
equipment, for the reason that totals were so frequently given instead 
of net increases, as specifically asked for. From a somewhat confus- 
ing mass of figures, I have untangled a few pertinent facts. 

,,2 s c. 3 



The most notable increase in endowment is at Wooster, namely, $231,- 
568.00, Western Reserve being second with $176,766. 07. Lake Erie 
College reports a hundred thousand increase ; Cincinnati University, 
$80,00.00; Ohio Wesleyan, $63,000.00, chiefly gifts on the annuity 
plan ; Mt. Union-Scio, a happy consummation but an awkward hyphena- 
tion. $20,000.00; Case, $14,000.00; and others in less amounts, or none 
at all. 

Kenyon, which owns residences for the members of her faculty, has 
a new President's house worth $20,000.00, a professor's house costing 
$8,000.00, and a new Alumni library, $50,000. 

Heidelberg opened her new $35,000.00 library last October, and will 
dedicate a new science building at the forthcoming Commencement. 

Muskingum has a new chapel, Cincinnati a new School of Com- 
merce, Ohio State a new library, Western Reserve several new buildings 
and departments. Wilberforce will have a new science hall, Ohio 
Northern a $150,000.00 memorial structure in honor of Ex-President 
Lehr who founded that institution in 1866, and the Ohio Wesleyan has 
launched a campaign for an Oratory building and the endowment of 
that department. 

German Wallace College is raising $100,000.00 in honor of its 
fiftieth anniversary this June. Denison is going after $300,000.00; Mt. 
Union-Scio, $200,000.00; Heidelberg and Ohio Northern, like sums. 
Ashland, Defiance, Findlay, Oxford College for women, Wittenberg, — 
all have initiated forward movements of greater or less degree for en- 
dowments, buildings, and departments. 

We observe in the reports that have come to us from the colleges 
and universities a trend toward sounder scholarship, toward a saner and 
cleaner athletic life, and toward a lessening of the outside interests that 
interfere with scholarly pursuits. 

It is safe to say that the type of higher institution of ten years ago 
has passed away never to return. Even our smaller universities and 
better colleges are much more composite in their departments and cur- 
ricula and address themselves to a multitude of interests to which little 
attention was given a decade ago. But this is especially true of our state 
university which is rapidly becoming the scientific arm of the state to 
do whatever the commonwealth in its organized capacity may undertake 
for the welfare of its citizens, in the scientific development of its farm 
lands and mineral resources, in the care and development of its penal 
institutions, in geological and biological surveys, and in many other 
ways. That it has still larger fields for usefulness is read in the action 
of our present governor who has invited experts from other institutions 
outside of our borders to help him shape his program of progressive 
legislation. 

Many of our Ohio cities, as well as the country, are receiving the 



best technical service that can be furnished by our universities. The 
great modern improvements in city government have not been inaugu- 
rated by the pohticians, nor even by the people at large, but by -experts 
who, for the most part, are college trained, — namely, sanitary and civil 
engineers, architects and landscape gardeners, bacteriologists and physi- 
cians, political economists and editors, educators and philanthropists. 

As an interesting comment on the service which a university may 
render the city, I quote a note from Dr. Dabney, President of the Cin- 
cinnati University : 

"We are making a systematic study of the children who apply at 
the Superintendent's office for permits to go to work. They are ex- 
amined as to he,?i.lth and education, also psychologically, and their fam- 
ilies economically, and then they are followed four years to note results." 

We know that two or three of our larger cities, notably Toledo and 
Dayton, have in past years regretted the lack of an institution of higher 
education to such a degree that they made overtures of increased en- 
dowment and complete rehabilitation to reputable colleges located in 
small cities, if only they would accept the invitation to transfer. The 
suspicion was strong in certain instances that the movements were 
largely of a financially speculative character. In others, civic pride, 
plus denominational spirit, plus a praiseworthy desire to give young 
people locally the opportunity at home of a higher education, were the 
agencies at work. 

Now there are schemes in the air, if not on foot, for the convert- 
ing of already established institutions into city universities, not to gratify 
civic pride or to give the advantages of a university education to the 
youth of those cities, — for those conditions are already satisfied, — but 
for the strengthening of the governing arm by the blood and life of the 
university. I clipped the following news note from the columns of one 
of our reportorial educational magazines : 

A university for the city of Cleveland, which contemplates the amalga- 
mating of Western Reserve University, the Case School of Applied Science, and 
to include an agricultural school with field work extending over the city's 2,000 
acre farm at Warrensville, is reported to be the plan proposed by Mayor Baker 
of Cleveland. The mayor believes all these institutions should be one and that 
they should be a part of the city government itself. He believes the city chemist's 
office should in some way be a part of the university scheme and that other city 
departments should work as one with the college. In other words, he wants 
the colleges to become closely identified with the scheme of city management. 

Buchtel College has the same thought concerning its relations to 
Akron. The president of that institution writes : "Plans are being 
considered for supporting Buchtel as a municipal college by city taxa- 
tion." The corporation of the college finds that the institution has 
trebled its attendance in the past ten years without sufficiently increas- 
ing its endowment, and proposes to transfer the entire plant and en- 
dowment, valued at $400,000, to the city, practically without restrictions 
of anv kind. 



If the' offer is accepted Akron will have an educational institution 
of college grade that will meet the community's needs in a distinctly 
modern way. 

It will be known as the College or University of the City of Akron, 
although in the event of the establishment of other schools or colleges . 
the name Buchtel College is to be retained for the liberal arts depart- 
ment, just as ]\icAIicken College is a part of the University of Cincin- 
nati. 

In making their proposal the trustees point out, among other things, 
that as a municipal institution, and with very slight addition to the 
money now spent for educational purposes by Akron, the college would 
offer to all qualified students of the city a college education with free 
tuition; that the college can be made of practical use in the work of city 
government ; and that the college will furnish an excellent basis for a 
greater municipal university that shall make ample provision for tech- 
nical and professional training for the youth of the city. 

Adjustments in that college are already being made with reference 
to local demands, for in a few brief notes imder the head of "Changes 
in Curriculum," Dr. Kolbe says, "VVe are oft'ering enlarged courses in 
technical chemistry,- — especially in the chemistry of rubber; and other 
technical courses which cooperate with the interests of our community." 

1 strongly suspect that many of the smaller colleges would gladly 
avail themselves of municipal aid, or state help, if either could be ex- 
tended, to assist them in meeting the tremendous demands for higher 
vocational training, — a field for which they are ill adapted by tradition, 
by the training of their professors, and especially by their meager re- 
sources. This plaint came from the president of a small, but fine de- 
nominational school : 

"I should say, under noteworthy tendencies, we are moving witli 
the general drift, but not always willingly. We regret that so many 
-Students who apply for admission to college have had a vocational rather 
•.than a more distinctly cultural preparation. The high school has be- 
»come the college preparatory school, but this is not the aim of the high 
school. Therefore, the college is being forced to accommodate itself 
to a preparatory school whose professed aim is vocational. No wonder 
that our z^merican educational system seems so confused. I hope the 
Schoolmasters' Club may solve our problem." 

One of the questions put to our college friends read, "If a denomi- 
national school, and within your province, what provisions are made for 
courses in education and practice teaching?" Outside of state or city 
supported institutions, at least twelve maintain more or less extensive 
•courses in education. These are : 

Cedarville — "Normal Department. Courses in Pedagogy." 
Defiance — "Regular Department of Education maintained." 
Denison— "Courses in Pedagogy and History of Education." 



Heidelberg — "Senior course in Education (Elective). First semester theoretical; 
Second semester, visit schools, report, discuss problems, etc. Two 
or three of the best students may teach in the Academy." 

Mt. Union-Scio — "Department of Education." 

Muskingum — "One year in History of Education. It is proposed to add a course 
— one year — in the Science of Education." 

Ohio Northern — Normal Practice course is maintained — also Model school. 

Otterbein — Educational Psychology, Religious Education, Principle of Education, 
Child Study, Philosophy of Teaching, Philosophy of School Man- 
agement, Psychology, Psychologic Foundations." 

Ohio Wesleyan — "No general courses. There is a course offered in the Teaching 
of English, and one in the Teaching of Latin." 

Rio Grande — "Regular three-year course for graduates of elementary schools in 
Education and Teaching." 

Western Reserve — "Courses in Education." 

Wilmington — "One course in Education and Teaching." 

Wittenberg — "Regular courses in Education all year through. In summer school 
we offer complete practice for all grades under supervision." One of 
the noteworthy tendencies of Wittenberg, as voiced by President 
Heckert, is "doing stronger work in preparing for the profession of 
teaching." 

Wooster — "Two three-hour courses throughout the year. Professor of education." 

The Board of Inspectors of the North Central Association of Col- 
leges and Preparatory Schools has already begun to sound the school 
men on an advanced requirement for the teachers of academic subjects. 
That standard at present is college graduation. It is proposed that col- 
lege graduation and professional study to the amount of at least eleven 
semester hours be made the standard. An alternative proposition of a 
stricter sort adds to the foregoing "special study in the pedagogy of 
the subject taught," and sets forth this as the minimum standard of 
qualifications after 191 5 of all teachers of academic subjects. If this 
advance step be taken by this highly influential standardizing agency, 
it will be interesting to observe the stirring of the dry bones in our edu- 
cational valleys. Some of the colleges listed above will doubtless begin 
to breathe the breath pi a more vigorous life into their moribund courses 
in education. 

Other significant movements in Ohio Colleges relate to a new 
emphasis on scholarship, a better control of fraternities, — Wooster has 
abolished them, by degrees, to enable her to benefit by Mr. Severance's 
gift of a million based on the foregoing condition, — to the governing of 
the student body by the honor system, to the placing of athletics on a 
saner footing, to the question of adeqtiacy in the teaching force, to col- 
lege uniformity, and to college amity. College professors as never be- 
fore are feeling the obligation resting upon them as leaders of thought 
in their own particular fields to give of their oil and wine to their less 
fortunate travelers along the Jericho road. And so the social order of 
our own state is immeasurably the gainer by the contributions of these 



8 

men of learning who are uncloistering themselves and going to village 
and rural communities, to men's clubs and Y. M. C. A.'s, to teachers' 
meetings and to farmers' institutes, to city councils and political con- 
ventions to give messages concerning the most practical things of life, — 
messages that are infused with the truth that has been wrought out in 
library and laboratory and in the chambers of reflection. The citizen- 
izing — perhaps I should say, this altruizing of our higher institutions of 
learning is a significant mark of our present day education. 

HIGH SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 

The high school has always been peculiarly the people's pride. At 
their very inception communities taxed themselves eagerly for handsome 
antl frequently for over-ornate buildings for the accommodation 
of the high schools, too often leaving their elementary schools to be 
carried on for years in dingy, unsanitary and unsafe structures. High 
school buildings of the second and third generation, so to speak, are 
now in existence, or "a horning," and, with apologies to "The Cham- 
bered Nautilus," each is a "more stately mansion," "with dome more 
vast," costing thousands and thousands of dollars more than the "out- 
grown shell" of its "low vaulted past." The million dollar high school 
has already been "in our midst," as Abe Martin would say, some years. 
Cincinnati and Cleveland are their proud possessors. The half mil- 
lion dollar high school will soon be built in Toledo and Columbus. The 
quarter of a million dollar high school already is or futnnis esse at 
Springfield, Canton, Akron, Youngstown, Sandusky and Hamilton. 
New high schools costing from a hundred thousand to two hundred 
thousand dollars number more than a score, and those of less valuation 
are literally too numerous to mention. 

While the high school building will always and deservedly be the 
most costly of our public school structures, the student of educational 
progress can not fail to note that the elementary school has also come 
into its own so far as its material setting is concerned. The best models 
architecturally are earnestly studied by superintendents and boards of 
education who hesitate not to tour the country in their quest. The in- 
fluence of William Itner, the eminent school architect of St. Louis, is 
seen in many an Ohio school building of recent construction, and occa- 
sionally the Gary type appears. Every modern elementary school build- 
ing contains at least these features which we are now putting into one 
on our East Side in Delaware. Class-rooms, preferably lighted from 
one side, an auditorium on the ground floor sufficient to accommodate 
the entire enrollment of the district, a gymnasium, shower baths, kinder- 
garten, toilets on all floors, bubble fountains, rest room, a lunch room, 
and kitchenette for teachers' use, in addition to rooms devoted to man- 
ual training and domestic science. The auditorium will be wired for the 



use both of the stereopticon and moving picture machine, and will also 
be used as a social center. 

In this year of financial stress for many schools it is pleasant to 
note the following bond issues for new buildings : Bethel, Frazeysburg 
and Orrville, $30,000 each; Morrow and McArthur, $40,000 each; East 
Palestine, $50,000; Berea, $60,000; Coshocton and Marysville, $80,000 
each; Youngstown for a new addition to their fine South High School, 
$90,000; (Springfield similarly voted $50,000 for the completion of their 
superb building); Troy, $125,000; East Liverpool, also $125,000; New 
Philadelphia, $130,000; Bellaire, $200,000; Hamilton and Sandusky, 
$250,000 each; Akron, $300,000. This by no means completes the list, 
but is chosen to show geographical distribution, and also more particu- 
larly the fact that small communities are aspiring to the best housing 
and equipment for their schools that they can aftord. 

The courses of study of many high schools are in process of change 
and adjustment in accordance with the liberalizing spirit of the age, and 
particularly in response to its vocational demands. This adjustment, 
especially in the small high school, has aspects of difficulty which the 
ordinary critic fails to appreciate, for the high school is obliged to con- 
sider not only its relation to the whole community, to adjust its program 
chiefly to that large class of pupils who will be "hewers of wood and 
drawers of water," but it must consider also its relation to the college 
and university which are sought by increasing numbers of high school 
graduates every year, and whose province it is to provide the educational 
stimulus and inspiration for the whole educational system. I am glad 
to recognize in the reports from the college a tendency to sympathize 
with the high school in this embarrassment. Certainly there is little 
desire, and no demand on the part of the college or university to circum- 
scribe the high school with so limited a boundary line as the college re- 
quirements. But,— and I think all school men here will agree— it is the 
province of the college or university in its relation to the high school to 
insist that the high school course shall be made up on its merits as a 
secondary school course ; that no university credit shall be given for any 
work of the high school of whatever kind, until it conforms to the best 
teaching standards; and then when a course of study is so made on its 
merits and its work conforms to the best teaching standards, such work 
should be received for entrance to the college or university. 

In this connection I wish to note the eminent service rendered to 
the schools of our state by the high school inspectors of the State 
University, and by those from the Commissioner's office. There is no 
conflict in this work, but on the other hand there is the happiest under- 
standing and cooperation. The former, as is well known, devote them- 
selves to the inspection of first grade high schools, in the main; this 
inspection is for the purpose of determining whether or not the gradu- 



10 



ates should be allowed to enter the university without examination or 
on conditions; the latter inspect the schools from the standpoint of 
efficiency of teaching and equipment, in which local conditions enter as 
an important factor. 

Some have the notion that the chief function of the University 
inspectors is to determine the amount of credit which the graduates of 
each school may receive at the State University, and to recommend 
high schools approved by them to be accredited by the North Central 
Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. This, in reality, is but 
a small part of their business. "Their real purpose," as President 
Brooks of the University of Oklahoma, recently remarked, "is the as- 
sisting of each community to establish and maintain a public school 
system that will best fit its graduates for admission to the great school 
of life; to keep in sympathetic and intelligent touch with the schools 
of the state; to know actually, rather than theoretically, the conditions 
that exist therein; to advise the university competently in order that its 
standards of admission may be based not upon tradition, nor yet solely 
upon a consideration of its own internal needs, but that the university 
may ever keep in mind the broad principle that adequate preparation for 
success in the competition of life is the very preparation that is most 
likely to enable a pupil to succeed in college work." 

All but the final sentence of this quotation applies equally well to 
the work of the high school inspectors appointed by the State School 
Commissioner. Certainly their chief duty is not to classify high schools, 
but to use such clasification as a powerful stimulus to the improvement 
of school conditions. Their service to small villages and rural commu- 
nities is not to be estimated in terms of dollars and cents. During the 
past year a closer inspection of third grade high schools has taken place 
in the belief that a number of them have retrograded from the stand- 
ards set up at their inception, and others probably never did carry out 
the vows of their christening as a high school. On this subject I am 
fortunate in being able to quote from an illuminating letter from Mr. J. 
L. Clifton, examination clerk in the State School Commissioner's office, 
who, on behalf of the department wrote as follows: 

"This department has outlined a course which we are pursuing 
toward high schools of the third and second grades. We have at this 
time very nearly one thousand high schools chartered in the state, — a 
few more than one-third of which are third grade. We feel that at least 
two-thirds of these third grade schools are too weak to be recognized as 
high schools, and we feel that the only purpose for which these schools 
were established was that the boards of education maintaining them 
might escape payment of Boxwell tuition to other schools. It is our 
policy, when we find a school doing this, and when the school shows 
lack of organization, equipment and teaching force, and the school spirit 



II 



is low, to revoke the charter. We are encouraging the weaker districts 
to agree to pay the tuition of all eighth grade graduates in their districts 
to high schools of the first grade. We hope the school men that are pro- 
gressive will support this policy." 

The apprehensions concerning the effects on the schools by the 
operation of the Smith one per cent, tax law, expressed by Dean Boyd 
in his review two years ago, and reiterated by Dr. Jones last year, have 
been cruelly realized in a third of the schools of the state. Many places, 
like Sidney, Painesville, Delaware and Springfield, have used up the 
surplus of the provident years. Superintendent Boggess writes their 
deficit will be $45,000. Dr. Chaney last December stated that Youngs- 
town would have to borrow $72,000 to tide over this year, and a few 
days ago he wrote that they were falling behind at the rate of $75,000 
a year. Dr. Shawan notes a decrease of $60,000 in the funds of the 
Columbus schools for the present year. Akron would have had a deficit 
of $70,000 but for a special vote on .8 of a mill additional to the levy 
allowed by the budget commission which fortunately carried. I can not 
particularize further. There are other figures that threaten like the 
Mene Tekel of Belshazzar. They appeared in a paper I wrote last 
winter on School Revenues, from which I quote a paragraph: ."The 
year 1912-13 will be known as the Dark Year — we hope it will not 
lengthen into a Dark Age — in the history of Ohio schools. Because of 
the lack of funds teachers have been dismissed, salaries reduced, depart- 
ments of instruction suspendeil, and forward movements have been 
arrested looking towards industrial training, the pensioning of teachers, 
and the social betterment of our school communities." 

In the matter of pensions. Superintendent Warner of Bellevue 
writes : "A petition to establish a fund is now before the Board of 
Education." This is interesting inasmuch as Bellevue with a 1910 pop- 
ulation of 5,209 is number 78 on the list of the one hundred largest cities 
and towns of Ohio. Piqua with fifty-six teachers is moving towards 
a pension system, forty-three teachers having expressed a desire to come 
under its provisions. Canton is taking steps toward the same end. Nor- 
wood reports: "Pension fund inaugurated. Sixty- four participate; 
twenty decline." 

The increase of salaries during the year are small, — less than five 
per cent, oii the average — and are confined to those places unaffected by 
the Smith law. To my parenthetical question, "Does increase in salaries 
during the past five years balance the increased cost of living?" there 
came from both college presidents and school superintendents a thunder- 
ous No! However, this answer was not unanimous. A few said, "I 
think so"; " Not quite"; "Nearly so"; "Yes, in the high school; no, in 
the grades" ; while Superintendents Baxter, of Canton, Bryant, of Co- 
shocton, and Martz, of Greenville, boldly replied, "Yes." 



12 



Very slight changes in the elementary courses of instruction are noted. 
Wherever made the purpose has been to eliminate waste, to make an 
economic adjustment to the vocational part of the school program, and 
in general to promote practicality and greater school efficiency. I quote 
from Dean Boyd: "There can be no mistake regarding the constant 
demand which is being placed upon our public schools for a more prac- 
tical intelligence in our boys and girls. It is not enough that the boys 
and girls be taught to think but people are demanding that they be taught 
to think about the more important things in the world. Their processes 
of thought must tduch social and material questions which will lead to 
their own and the world's development." 

Notable improvements in the teaching force are being secured by 
many superintendents. The annual output of the normal schools is 
usually snapped up long before graduation day. The colleges and uni- 
versities contribute their quota also, — a larger number of young women, 
however, than of men for school work. It is a question whether as many 
college or university trained men of a high type are now entering on 
teaching with the purpose of making it a career as formerly, say, two or 
three decades ago. But of those who do enter with this serious pur- 
pose, and of those without any such intent originally who, once in, find 
in themselves unsuspected aptitudes and relish for the work, and who 
give themselves to postgraduate study, it is but fair to say that they are 
a superb lot, better fitted both for teaching and administration than the 
men of an older day. There were 174 Ohio people at Columbia last 
summer, — not to mention some scores at Chicago, and smaller numbers 
at Harvard and Wisconsin. Superintendents Helter, of Mansfield, 
Arganbright, of Blufliton. and Principal Mclntire, of Madisonville, re- 
ceived their A. M.'s at Columbia, and Superintendent Sealock, of Circle- 
ville, his Master's degree at Wisconsin. The latter resigned in the mid- 
year to go to Columbia to work on his doctorate in the College of Educa- 
tion. Another superintendent declines a re-election for the same 
purpose. We hope to welcome these men back to Ohio, but the 
hope may be in vain. Other states have a hunger for good men, too. 
You will remember that Carr after a year at Columbia went to Bay- 
onne; Beachler similarly to Nutley, New Jersey. Our forme;; near-by 
worker in the schools at Worthington, Henry Gruver, caught the con- 
tagion three or four years ago. He is now Doctor Gruver, by grace of 
Harvard, and last fall entered on his new duties as assistant superin- 
tendent of the Indianapolis schools. 

The rank and file of the elementary schools are also eager for self- 
improvement. Ten thousand of them are studying the books prescribed 
by the Ohio Teachers' Reading Circle; six thousand of them were in 
the greater or smaller summer schools of the state; hundreds attended 
the mid-summer meeting of the National Education Association, and 



13 

other hundreds journeyed to the coasts or to the mountains, or to 
Europe, in search, not of rest, but of teaching material, first hand 
knowledge and inspiration. Kent Normal School has carried on during 
the year extension work in the counties within a radius of fifty miles. 
Mr. Williams, President of the Bowling Green Normal School, expects 
to establish model country schools in many counties close to Bowling 
Green, and place in charge of these schools an expert teacher under the 
supervision of the Normal School. Youngstown has a new teacher- 
training school. Upper Sandusky, Springfield and Steubenville increase 
pay on credits of normal work in approved schools. In Toledo scholar- 
ships are ofifered each year by private individuals to ten or fifteen 
teachers of elementary schools recommended therefor by the superin- 
tendent. The leaven of educational progress is at work wherever there is 
plasticity in our pedagogical mass, — wherever convention and precedent, 
and formality and routine, and meanness and parsimony have not ac- 
complished their deadly effects. 

AGRICULTURE AND RURAL SCHOOLS. 

In reporting the activities of the four supervisors of Agriculture, 
and the school legislation of the year, I can not do better than to quote 
again from Air. Clifton's letter : 

"Each of the four men have visited not less than three hundred 
schools during the past year. In each school visited they have talked to 
the pupils and inspired the teacher to better work; especially in agri- 
culture, but incidentally along all other lines. The Agricultural Super- 
visors and High School Inspectors keep the fact before the teachers at 
all times that it is necessary to know how to teach in order to teach. 
This agitation has resulted in definite good in all sections of the state, 
and the people of the rural districts especially, are demanding better 
school opportunities. I shall mention only a few instances to show the 
tendency of practically every section of the state. 

■ In Pickaway County there has been a feeling of unrest in practically 
every township concerning their schools. The results are that Jackson 
Township has centralized her schools and built a modern school house 
of eight rooms with an assembly room. The schools are all centralized 
in this building. This agitation caused Pickaway Township to centralize 
her schools even on a larger scale, and by September, 1913, Pickaway 
Township will finish a modern $40,000 school building. The townships 
adjacent to the two mentioned are all demanding the same school op- 
portunities. And it will not be long until this movement spreads to 
every township of the county. 

Violet Township in Fairfield County has centralized schools, and 
they find that their six-room building is entirely too small to accommo- 
date the growing school. This township has just sold a contract for an 



14 

eight-room building in addition to the six rooms they now have. The 
Board of Education expects to have this eight-room building finished 
by October i, 1913. The four townships joining this township are de- 
manding the same privileges which they are bound to ge in the next few 
years. 

This demand for centralized schools has also come from Union 
and Licking Townships in Licking County ; several townships in Knox 
and Muskingum Counties, and nearly every other county in the state. 
So we are not mistaken when we say that the rural school problem 
will be solved in the next five years by a complete centralization or con- 
solidation of their schools. 

On account of the criticism from this Department many of the hill 
counties of the State are leading in this movement. You find the Boards 
of Education of Brown County have organized a County Association 
of school board members, and this county organization is working cut 
many good features that will greatly help their schools. One feature 
that they have emphasized the last year is that they will pay any teaclier 
in their employment from twenty to thirty dollars more for the next 
school year if he attend a normal school for not less than six weeks 
during the summer. A second feature is that they abandon any school 
district that does not have a sufficient enumeration and daily attend- 
ance to justify the maiiitenance of the school. This movement shows a 
tendency to spread to the other counties in that section of the State." 

SCHOOL LEGISLATION. 

Here again I use Mr. Clifton's report : "The school legislation 
passed by this General Assembly is, — First, a school survey has been 
authorized by the Legislature to investigate the schools and institutions 
of higher learning of Ohio. To this end the Governor has appointed a 
commission of three to serve without pay to carry on this school sur- 
vey. This commission has called in to this State the Bureau of Munic- 
ipal Research of New York, which has assigned the work directly to 
Horace L. Brittain. Mr. Brittain expects to make a thorough survey of 
the schools and other ins: tutions and report at least partially to the Gen- 
eral Assembly in special session next January. The result of this survey 
can only be good, and it 'promises to revolutionize the school system of 
Ohio. Second, a law ha been passed that removes the 1910 limitation 
of the Smith 1% Tax Law, which will allow Boards of Education to 
levy not to exceed five mi .s for the support of their schools, without a 
vote of the people. We feel that many districts will be helped by this 
law. Third, villages heretofore have been required to have at least 
$100,000 worth of taxable property before they are legally constituted 
villages. This valuation has been raised by recent law to $500,000. 
Fourtli, incorporated villages by a vote of the electors of the district may 



15 

abandon their school district without surrendering their corporate pow- 
ders. When this vote is carried the village school district becomes a 
part of the original township district. Fifth, teachers are allowed two 
•days to take the examination instead of one day as the law has been in 
the past. The last four mentioned laws did not carry the emergency 
•clause and will not be in operation until after ninety days after being 
signed by the Governor." 

The school survey is the biggest educational fact of the year. It 
promises to result in more good to the schools of the state than any 
other agency within your lifetime and mine. Its revelations will not 
be a surprise to some of us. The Governor could have ascertained from 
a few men who already have full and expert knowledge of Ohio con- 
ditions — say, for example, the present school commissioner and living 
ex-commissioners, the manager of the Ohio Teachers' Reading Circle, 
the high school inspectors and the supervisors of agriculture, — enough 
information to warrant a most ample scheme of progressive legislation 
for the schools, but it is doubtful whether in this way the social and 
moral conscience of the people would have been sufficiently stirred. 
The ten thousand dollars will have been well invested if only we can 
get the people to think and feel. If they feel deeply enough it will be 
comparatively easy to place on the statute books the comprehensive 
scheme of legislation which the commission will doubtless embody in its 
report. We wish to assure the members, and particularly the director, 
Dr. Brittain, of our warm welcome and cordial cooperation. 

But why should not Ohio have a permanent commission to ad- 
minister its great department of public education? Such a commission 
should, as a most important duty, study expenditures for public educa- 
tion — elementary, high school, university and technical education — in 
relation to the resources of individual cities and communities. The com- 
mission should be clothed with power similar to that which is given to 
the railroad commission. Communities that are at fault through neglect, 
parsimony, or meanness, in their failure properly to support their 
schools, could speedily be made to give the necessary aid. If the fault 
were one of actual poverty, then the bounty of the State would be duly 
and quickly apportioned. If the schools themselves were at fault, the 
inspectors already in the field would report such delinquencies to the 
commission and the commission would at once institute a new order 
•of things. In other words, an educational commission, as a permanent 
feature of the State's administration, would give us in a few years a 
body of educational theory and practice that would get us somewhere. 
It would save us from the confusion and conflict that have characterized 
many of our efforts. It would put the whole system of public educa- 
tion in Ohio on a plane of scientific management. It would give to this 
immense enterprise requiring over thirty millions a year in monev and 



i6 

thirty thousand men and women in service, exactly the same kind of 
efficiency and economy that mark the operations of gigantic corpora- 
tions under the advice and leadership of modern business engineers. 

THE SOCIALIZATION OF THE SCHOOLS. 

I have endeavored to ascertain the extent to which the schoolmen 
of the State have participated in the great modern movement of socializ- 
ing the school. My correspondents were asked to discuss such of the 
activities named herewith as have come under their own administration, 
plus those also promoted by private initiative. They were further in- 
structed not to limit data to the current year. 

/, 'Agencies on the Infellectml Side. 

Sub-topic: (a) Home and school associations, (b) Free lec- 
tures, (c) High schools on a modern basis, (d) Schools for the 
mentally defective and retarded, (e) Other special classes, (f) School 
gardens, (g) Vacation schools, (h) Trade schools and continuation 
schools, (i) Circulating libraries for pupils and parents, (j) Indus- 
trial education, (k) Decoration of school buildings. (1) Musical fes- 
tivals. 

//. Agencies on the Physical Side. 

Sub-topics: (a) Medical inspection, (b) School nurses, (c) Spe- 
cial treatment of defective vision, (d) Clinical care of children's teeth, 
(e) Mothers' alliance for the care of babies, (f) Treatment of the deaf 
and blind. (g) Outdoor sports for pupils suffering from incipient 
tuberculosis, (h) Baths, school lunches, gymnasium work, etc. 

III. Agencies on the Social Side. 

Sub-topics: (a) Playgrounds, (b) Equipment of school yards, 
(c) Social and recreation centers, (d) Employment agencies for pupils 
leaving school, (e) Public baths, (f) Kindergartens, (g) Play car- 
nivals. 

IV. Agencies on the Moral Side. 

Sub-topics: (a) Savings banks, (b) Special classes for unusual 
girls, (c) Organized moral training, (d) Sex education, (e) Simple 
housekeeping, (f) Other forms of volitional education. 

The ten larger cities of our State, with perhaps one exception, are 
in the full swing of this movement towards socialization, — no one of 
them having in operation all of the activities suggested in the list of sub- 
topics just read, in which an over-emphasis of idealism may be dis- 
cerned, but no one of them showing a hostile or ultra-conservative spirit 
towards the idea. Of the medium sized and smaller cities of the state 
where the idea has taken root, mention may be made of Alliance, Bell- 



I? 

aire, Coshocton, Elyria, Fremont, Greenville, Lockland, Newark, Nor- 
wood, Oberlin, Piqua and Steubenville. Of these Elyria, for its organ- 
ized work along so many lines, deserves special mention; also, Newark 
for its recent successful campaign for playground and athletic field ; and 
Steubenville for its free breakfasts to indigent pupils, its vacation schools 
supported by the board of education, its school gardens, and high class 
musical festivals. 

School gardening has received an immense impetus from the super- 
visors of agriculture. One of them, Mr. Ivins, of Lebanon, writes that 
more than fifty thousand children this summer will be engaged in this 
work. On the other hand, several superintendents write that they have 
abandoned the enterprise after trying it out several years. 

A wider utilization of the school plant is rapidly extending through- 
out our state. Buildings are opened evenings for parents' meetings, 
medical societies, musical -clubs and recitals, civic leagues, gymnasium 
work, evening classes, free lectures, and qther organized social activities. 
Outside of the larger cities, little attention is given to medical inspection 
and to clinical care of children's teeth. Superintendents interest them- 
selves in obvious cases of defective vision, and commonly see that the 
eyes of indigent pupils are properly treated and fitted at the expense of 
the board. Five school nurses are provided in Toledo, four each in 
Columbus and Akron, one each at Ravenna, Cuyahoga Falls, and Con- 
neaut. District nurses work in co-operation with the schools at Elyria 
and Lancaster. Springfield utilizes its truant officer as the head of a vo- 
cation bureau. 

I have not time to summarize completely all the returns on this 
interesting phase of our modern school life, but enough has been given 
to indicate the trend of the movement in Ohio. 

And now I have at last reached my "finally, brethren". That 
"finally" is a word of caution and advice. 

A CAUTION AND A SUGGESTION. 

In view of the abundant criticism of the public school already 
reverberating about our ears, in view further of an intensification of 
meteorologic and seismic disturbances that will probably be engendered 
by the survey, I call your attention, gentlemen, to the importance of 
emphasizing the dignity of the American public school as it is. It is 
not without fault or blemish. Heaven knows, and -zt'^ know. Its most 
emphatic critics are school men. Not even the church is subjecting 
itself to so merciless a grilling. We welcome constructive criticism, 
and would prefer to have it couched in friendly if not in sympathetic 
tones. But whether it comes from friendly or hostile sources, school 
men generally are bound to profit by it. There is a danger, however, 
that we may drive children away and alienate the public's support by 



our own frank confession that the school is so bound by tradition and 
custom and a top-heavy curriculum that it is foreign to our present 
needs. Once more Wisdom crieth aloud, and, I am afraid. Foolishness 
crieth still louder. Even as it is, let us make it clear to the public that 
the school is neither a misfit nor a failure. We may not yet here in 
Ohio have got our public school wagon firmly hitched to a star, but, 

"Over hill, over dale, 

Thorough bush, thorough brier, 
Over park, over pale, 

Thorough flood, thorough fire." 

we may certainly be recognized as followers of the gleam. 



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